Foot steps of a leader

I know some might not think of it this way, but Sir Richard Branson's life and achievement can indeed be a great inspiration to many aspiring leaders and entrepreneurs.

Submitted:Apr 12, 2007
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Sir Richard Branson

Footsteps of a great leader.

"Lavish praise on people and people will flourish; criticize
people and they'll shrivel up."

Had the Virgin Group invited applicants for its top most
leadership position, the least they could have gone for would
probably have been an MBA. But even should they have stooped
lower to a first degree, still, Sir Richard Branson, the group's
founder and CEO, would not have qualified. Not with his below
average performance in school and his subsequent dropping out at
the age of 17.

In spite of this, Branson has been described as one of the most
exciting and personable businessmen alive. His massive
achievements in business only amount to what dreams are made of:
immense wealth, fame, and acknowledgment, all coming along with
an easy smile and personality. This is the sunny side of him that
shone during his recent visit to announce the entry of Virgin
Atlantic into Kenyan skies.

Unlike Bill Gates and his contemporaries in the ranks of the
rich, Branson never had the opportunity to study at Harvard,
neither was he born to a wealthy family of lawyers and doctors.
Like most Kenyan entrepreneurs, Branson was brought up by humble
parents and did not attend expensive schools. He studied at Stowe
and developed his leadership skills through experience in the
school of life.

At the age of 17, and perhaps realising his special needs in
school, Branson began a Students' Advisory Centre in Britain. All
he longed to be then was an editor, only to realise that if
Student, a successful magazine he had started, was to
survive; he had no option but to turn into an entrepreneur.

One of the most important tests of leadership is the nature and
magnitude of challenges that one has to overcome at a personal
level. This is usually measured by the insightfulness and
strength of decisions that one makes and how well he executes
them.

Branson's test was poor academic performance, and his insightful
decision was to walk away from school. As it was later
discovered, he suffered from dyslexia, a health condition that
makes learning in class difficult. With the embarrassment that
comes with failing exams, Branson figured that his destiny and
dignity perhaps lay in doing something else other than reading.

Admitting to having a personal weakness is one thing that most
leaders would rather not do, more so if it threatens to portray
them as lesser intellectuals. But this was not so with Branson.
In an October 2005 interview with a journalist in Miami, Branson
admitted to his academic challenge: "I think I'm mildly dyslexic
... I would just literally look at sheets of questions, math
questions or whatever, and just could not fathom what was going
on, and so at quite a young age decided, you know, to put school
behind me and leave."

Such unpretentious and honest admissions not only endear a leader
to his people, but also set the stage upon which more trusting
relationships can be built. And looking at what Branson has
achieved so far in life, currently ranked the fifth richest
Briton, shows the strength there can be in humility. But perhaps
what comes out most strongly in Branson's life is the much he
believes in himself, in his dreams and vision, and the extent to
which he can go to achieve them.

As Steve Jobs, co-founder and CEO of Apple Inc., makers of
Macintosh computers, says this of his dropping out of Reed
College: "You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny,
life, karma, whatever." There can never be winning without this
kind of will power, and as Jobs testifies: "This approach has
never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my
life."

Only three years after quitting school, Branson, then aged 20,
founded Virgin as a mail order record outlet. Later, he
opened a recording studio along Oxford Street in London, where he
worked with Mike Oldfield in his debut project titled "Tubular
Bells", and The Sex Pistols. As time went by, Branson signed many
renown superstars at his Virgin record, among them Phil Collins,
The Rolling Stones and Janet Jackson, turning the Virgin Music
Group into a force to reckon with. In 1992, Branson sold this
division to Thorn EMI of USA for $1 billion (about Ksh. 70
billion by current exchange rates).

Branson speaks for his people and has a voracious craving for
competition. As the head of his vast business empire, he believes
in growth through offering better service at a better price.
During his recent visit to Kenya, he announced that his airline,
Virgin Atlantic, hopes to capture 25 per cent of Kenya Airways'
stronghold: the Nairobi - Heathrow route, in one year. And what
strategy does he have up his sleeves? "Offering better services
at a more affordable price".

However, Kenya will not be his first experience with competition.
In 1984, Branson did what few people would have dreamt of:
starting the Virgin Atlantic airline in Britain, home of British
Airways, one of the world's largest carriers. Today, Virgin
Atlantic is only second to British Airways in terms of size in
Britain. Branson has also taken on Coca-Cola with his Virgin
brand of soft drinks.

The Virgin Group is a conglomerate of over 200 small companies,
with interests ranging from air travel to tourism,
telecommunication, rail transport and fashion. This business
model has been criticised as a form of trying to make up for
something that Branson feels could be missing in life. In one
instance, an academician charged: "A brand cannot stand for music
stores, airlines, mobile phones, colas, financial services, and
on and on. There's no brand on earth that can do that. That's
ego."

To this, Branson replied: "The conventional wisdom is you should
specialise in what you know and never stray from that, but no
other brand has become a way-of-life brand the way Virgin has...
We've got people all over the world who are coming up with great
new ideas, and trying them doesn't actually cost us a lot
relative to the overall size of the group."

Ego or no ego, Branson is a believer in constant innovation,
besides being a risk taker. And like every visionary leader, he
anticipates an exiting opportunity at all times, and this often
happens. He believes in his people, has a forward inclined
perspective of himself and others, and is good at forgiving:
"Give people a second chance if they screw up. Even people who
have stolen from us have become, when given a second chance,
incredibly loyal and valued employees. I don't know where I'd be
if I hadn't been given second chances."

Unlike many of the most vaunted and imitated entrepreneurs,
writes Michael Hopkins of Inc. magazine, Branson keeps
looking like someone on the prow of that sweet boat, grinning
because he knows a secret, happy because he does not know exactly
what's next but is absolutely sure that it won't be dull.

Besides being a high flying business leader, Branson believes in
giving back to the society. Back in Britain, he is a trustee of
several charities, among them the Healthcare Foundation- a
charity responsible for the launch of Parents Against Tobacco
campaign. In an interview, Branson once said "I think it's
important if you're running businesses, especially if you've got
the wealth of a small nation which some of the bigger brands have
got now, you are more than just a business."

The first time for Branson to lend his name to a project was in
South Africa - The Branson School of Entrepreneurship at CIDA
City Campus. This is South Africa's first virtually free tertiary
institution and actively promotes the growth and education of
budding entrepreneurs from financially disadvantaged backgrounds.

First Published in Small Medium Enterprises Today magazine,
Nairobi, April 2007.